Here's How The Patriots Roster Around Tom Brady Got So Bad

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images The New England Patriots have one of the worst offenses in the NFL.

The numbers are awful. They're ranked 28th out of 32 teams in offensive DVOA. They're dead last in yards per play. They can't run (22nd in yards per rush) or pass (Tom Brady is 33rd out of 34 quarterbacks in yards per attempt).

When you look at the Patriots roster, you see that New England's problems have little to do with Tom Brady's supposedly declining skills and everything to do with the guys around him.

Bill Belichick, the primary architect of every Patriots team for the last decade, has never believed in devoting cap money and high draft picks to skill position players. He has been able to get away with that in the past because of some savvy late-round drafting, good coaching, and the brilliance of Brady.

But even by Belichick's standards, this 2014 Pats team is devoid of skill position talent.

That 2012 Patriots offense that finished No. 1 in offensive DVOA has five guys who finished the season with 25 or more catches: Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez, and Danny Woodhead.

Despite devoting some resources to skills players in both the draft and the free agent market, Belichick hasn't been able to replace that production.

He let Wes Welker leave to go to Denver for two years, $12 million. The Patriots signed the younger Danny Amendola for $10 million in guaranteed money to replace Welker, but the signing has been a disappointment. While Welker was putting up ridiculous numbers in Denver last year, Amendola missed four games to injury and only made 54 catches for 633 yards and two touchdowns — which is rough for a No. 1 wide receiver. Things have gotten worse in 2014. He only has three catches for 16 yards through four weeks.

Belichick's other moves have been just as fruitless.

He drafted wide receiver Aaron Dobson in the second round in 2013, but he hasn't put up the type of numbers you'd expect from a high pick (38 catches in 17 games) and now he's hurt.

He drafted wide receiver John Boyce in the fourth round in 2013. Boyce was cut in August.

Belichick's one big skill position free agent signing for 2014 was Brandon LaFell, a career role player who has never had 50 catches in a season. Other recent attempts to sign veteran wide receivers on the last legs of their careers — Deion Branch, Donte' Stallworth, Michael Jenkins— have failed.

Despite the success the Patriots had with their Hernandez-Gronkowski two tight end system in 2011 and 2012, they haven't looked to acquire another game-changing tight end.

The running game isn't helping much either. LaGarrette Blount, the team's second-leading rushing last year, left in free agency. Days before the season the Patriots traded Logan Mankins, the team's best interior lineman, to the Bucs for financial reasons.

Tom Brady's top two pass-catchers are Julian Edelman and Shane Vereen. For comparison, the Broncos put Wes Welker, Demaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, and Jacob Tamme around Peyton Manning. The failure of the Patriots offense this year is a roster construction failure more than anything else.